A day with “nautical conditions” yields amazing whale and dolphin sightings.
- Bob Perry
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
2025 05–14 SB Channel
The good news is that skies were mostly clear all day. On the other side of the coin, a lumpy southeast wind in the morning turned into a bit of a moderate washing machine with white caps later in the day. The good news: First of all water clarity was good; Second, despite somewhat adverse conditions, the sharp-eyed crew and the excellent seamanship of Captain Eddy resulted in the following sightings: 5000 common dolphins and 8+ humpback whales.
The first of many active birdnados today was found southwest of The Farm. This was a large one and attracted a megapod of dolphins that stretched for over 1 mile. Also attracted to the area where humpback whales. We first saw a pair of adults that were feeding subsurface. A third whale, another adult, joined in and then move south in travel mode. Another pair, a cow and her calf, by random luck happened to come by the boat for a close approach at one point.
Putting the seas as stern, we ended up moving southeast of Platform Habitat where we encountered an adult whale that breached about 200 yards off of our bow. It then swam under the boat, crossing the bow an moving to the other side of the. There was another whale in the area, but not close, and we did not get a chance to get near it. The original breaching whale led us to another cow calf pair and quickly joined up to make a threesome. The three whales proceeded to MUG the Condor Express. First on the port side, then the starboard. They spent a lot of quality time looking at their fans on board the boat. We had a prolonged and excellent session with these whale ambassadors.
It should be mentioned that earlier in the trip we picked up one deflated balloon from the ocean surface.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry